San Antonio high schools have the usual cliques: Cheerleaders, nerds, jocks, Goths and werewolves, reports KENS5-TV. Would-be werewolves wear contact lenses to make their eyes yellow, fangs, chains and tails sewn to their jeans. (High school officials have banned the chains and tails as disruptive violations of the dress code.)

. . . movies like Van Helsing and the Twilight series have captured the attention of teenagers. They may not be mutating from man to wolf, but Northside school district counselors warn these teens are experiencing transformations of their own: from childhood to adulthood.

They’re not trying to be scary, wolf pack members say. They’re “family.”

A boy named Dei wears a leash. “His mom has a leash on him too,” reports KENS. Pam Manley keeps Dei tethered to family, his chores and his studies.

“As soon as he walks in the door, he is supposed to take out the fangs, lose the lenses and put his hair back,” Manley said. “They’re good kids. And it takes some courage to stand up and be who you want to be and be able to express yourself in this way.”

However, 23-year-old Wolfie Blackheart is being investigated for cutting off a dog’s head — she says the dog was dead before she started — boiling it and posting a photo of the skull online. “I would never kill a canine,” the amateur taxidermist told the local newspaper. “I am a canine.”